The present inventions relates to a method of verifying the strength of a vehicle when the vehicle is fitted with auxiliary equipment.
Heavy vehicles can be ordered from the vehicle manufacturer with innumerable different specifications and equipment options. In the case of a truck, for example, the customer may specify the wheelbase, axle loads, engine, transmission, vehicle length etc. There are also a lot of accessories which are not provided by the actual manufacturer but which are fitted by various vehicle builders. This may be a tail lift, a towing coupling, a crane or the like, for example. It is important, especially in the case of accessories which are heavy and/or which may place an asymmetrical load on the vehicle, that the vehicle ordered should be adapted and prepared for the intended equipment. For a truck with a long overhang, for example, the rear part of the frame may need to be reinforced so that it will be strong enough to withstand the forces to which the frame is subjected when the equipment is fitted.
In order to adapt a vehicle for the intended equipment, a number of tables and diagrams are currently used.
These tables and diagrams can assist the vehicle builder in assessing whether and to what extent the frame of a truck, for example, needs to be strengthened in order to cope with auxiliary equipment. The problem with this is firstly that these tables and diagrams are quite general, which means that the vehicle builder may make the reinforcement unnecessarily strong and therefore heavy in order to be on the safe side. Another problem is that the vehicle manufacturer has to continually update these tables and diagrams in order to take account both of new components and systems on the vehicles and of new variants of the vehicles. In addition the vehicle builder has to continually update his tables and diagrams and must furthermore be able to determine which vehicle specification a special vehicle will approximate to before he can read the information off from a table, for example.
There are also a number of programs into which the vehicle builder himself can feed all the information on a vehicle, so as to be able to perform calculations of the strength when an item of equipment is fitted, for example. The disadvantage with this is that it is time-consuming and difficult to specify all essential parameters for a vehicle, and that it is easy to specify an incorrect value for a parameter. For example, the vehicle manufacturer may have changed a specification without the knowledge of the vehicle builder.
It is desirable to provide a method of verifying the strength of a vehicle in combination with auxiliary equipment fitted which is as simple and reliable as possible.
The method according to an aspect of the invention is adapted to verify the strength of a vehicle in combination with auxiliary equipment fitted by collecting the vehicle specification and its parameters in a vehicle database on the basis of the vehicle chassis number or specification number and then performing a strength calculation using the vehicle parameters and the parameters of the auxiliary equipment.
This first embodiment of the method according to an aspect of the invention allows the strength of a vehicle with auxiliary equipment fitted to be verified on the basis of the chassis number or specification number of the vehicle. The advantage of this is that a combination of vehicle and auxiliary equipment can be tested before the vehicle is being built. This means that any necessary reinforcements can be incorporated into the vehicle when the vehicle is built. The combination of vehicle, auxiliary equipment and reinforcement can moreover be optimized so as to provide a reinforcement which meets the relevant requirements but which is at the same time as light as possible.
In an advantageous first development of the method according to an aspect of the invention it is also possible to calculate the handling characteristics for the combination of the vehicle and the auxiliary equipment.
The advantage of this, for example, is that the stability of the vehicle can be calculated before the vehicle is built.